Creating Powerful Multicultural Lessons Using Literature, Music and Media

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Creating Powerful Multicultural Lessons Using
Literature, Musicand Media

• Cathy A. Pohan, Ph.D.
• Texas A M - Corpus Christi
• [phone]

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The Role of Public Education in the United States

• The enculturation of our young into a social and
  political democracy (Goodlad, 2004).
• To help young people do well in the lives they
  lead outside of school (Eisner, 2004).

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Democratic Citizenship

• Maintaining a democratic society and preserving
  and extending freedom require citizens who
• Understand and embrace democratic values and
• Recognize their responsibility to help narrow the
  gap between real and idealized American values
  (Banks, 1999).

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Democratic Education

• Students of every age should leave school with
  the following three understandings
• I can make a difference in my world
• I know how to make a difference in my world.
• I care enough to make a difference in my world.
  
• (Hutchinson Hunt,
  2001)

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A Call For Multicultural Education

• As the diversity of our society deepens and our
  nation faces new challenges and possibilities,
  the mastery of basic skills will be essential but
  not sufficient.
• Students must possess the knowledge, attitudes,
  and abilities needed to work with people from
  diverse groups in order to create civic, moral,
  and just communities that promote the common good
  (Banks, 1999).

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Multicultural Education Supporting ELLs Through

• Comprehensible input
• Increased opportunities for verbal interaction in
  activities
• Contextualized language
• Low anxiety activities
• Increased opportunities for student engagement
  and active participation
• (Cummins Herrell Jordonand
  Krashen)

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Two Specific StrategiesUsed to Support ELLs

• Imaging
• A strategy whereby students create images in
  their minds to support the under-standing of
  concepts or to solve problems.
• (Chamot OMally, 1994)

• Multimedia Presentations
• Use of media adds context which result in
  comprehensible input.
• (Diaz-Rico Weed, 1995)

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Sources for Powerful and Engaging
(Multicultural) Lessons

• Music (text in the form of lyrics and song)
• Literature (trade books, primary and secondary
  source documents)
• Media Sources (television, magazines, newspapers,
  internet)

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Music The Doorway to Emotional Memory

• Music elicits feelings and emotion.
• Lyrics are the text of music. Students can
  analyze, interpret and respond to such text.
• Students might have difficulty reading about
  social and political issues, but they will listen
  to such issues discussed in popular music.
• Music engages the heart and mind.
• Music can create a context for increased verbal
  communication and language development.

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A Multicultural Approach is Compatible with a
Standards-Based Curriculum

• See Elementary and Middle School Reading/Language
  Arts and Social Science TEKS
• See Secondary Reading, Speech Communications and
  Social Science TEKS

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Popular Music Samples

• Elementary and Middle School
• Dont Laugh at Me
  
  by Mark Wills
• Who I Am
• by Jessica Andrews
• Middle and Secondary School
• Where is the Love
• by The Blackeyed
  Peas

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Literature Examples

• Textbooks were never meant to be THE Curriculum!
  They are simply a resource for teachers.
• Studies have found that textbooks often present
  sterile, one-sided views and are filled with
  inaccurate information.
  (Loewen Daniels Zemelman,
  2004)
• Trade books, primary source documents and the
  internet can provide students with multiple
  perspectives and an opportunity to develop
  critical thinking and media literacy.

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Television Viewing

• Young people ages 6-18 spend more time in front
  of the television than in school or sleeping. On
  average, preschoolers in the U.S. watch 27 hours
  of TV per week.
• It is estimated that before graduating from
  elementary school, a child will witness 100,000
  acts of simulated violence on TV.
• Childrens programming perpetuates the gender and
  ethnic stereotypes prevalent in American society.
• (APA, 1998 Centerwall, 2000 Cortes, 2001
  MacBeth, 1996)

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Television/Media cont.

• What appears to be quite clear in the research is
  that, for better or worse, the media (television,
  in particular) contribute powerfully to current
  multicultural beliefs, attitudes, understandings
  and misunderstandings.
• Television teaches children who is important and
  who is culturally elevated and valued. The
  messages are subtle and pervasively there in
  role-casting, voice-overs, and scripting.
  (Cortes, 2001 MacBeth, 1996).

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In Childrens Programming

• Studies reveal a glaringly disproportionate
  number of good guys are White males bad guys
  are often portrayed as males of color and/or
  people with accents (suggesting ESL and/or
  foreigners).
• Male characters outnumber female characters
  almost 4 to 1.
• Whereas males are portrayed as dominate, powerful
  and aggressive, females either have no role at
  all or are cast as damsels in distress or sex
  objects. (MacBeth, 1996 Cortes, 2001)

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Whats All the FussAbout Television?

• Stereotypic, snapshot depictions present young
  people with a social reality.
• The cumulative effect, in combination with their
  real life experiences (or lack thereof),
  influences childrens developing beliefs about
  themselves and diverse others (MacBeth,
  1996 Quintana, 1999).
• Beliefs are powerful, mediating knowledge and
  actions (Bandura, 1977).

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Hate Crimes on the Rise

• Most hate crimes are carried out by otherwise
  law-abiding young people who see little wrong
  with their actions. Alcohol and drugs sometimes
  help fuel these crimes, but the main determinant
  appears to be personal prejudice, a situation
  that colors peoples judgment, blinding the
  aggressor to the immorality of what they are
  doing. (APA, 1998 Report)

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Developing Media Literacy

• We must take seriously our call to teach media
  literacy skills, thereby empowering young people
  to sort through the content of a variety of media
  sources and ask
• Who is telling the story?
• Is it authentic? How do I know?
• How does this perspective fit with my own lived
  experiences?
• Who gains from my believing this information?
• What perspective or information am I not hearing
  or seeing?

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What Can We Do?

• It does us little good to recognize the mass
  medias multicultural teaching power,
  particularly the media treatment of different
  social and cultural groups, if we, as teachers do
  not also draw upon that recognition to inform and
  transform our teaching practices. (Cortes, 2001)

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Media Education Media Literacy

• In the engagement of content, media education
  fosters the observation of details and their
  sequence and the relationships in a purposeful
  manner to arrive at an understanding of the
  ideological structures, themes, values, claims,
  and evidence, and their warrants, as well as
  narrative elements such as motivations, plot
  lines, characters, and characterizations.

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Media Education/Literacy cont.

• Media education provides for a reflective
  evaluation of
• Fact and opinion
• Logical and affective appeals
• Imaginative and creative exposition and
• Imaging.
• (Anderson Ploghoft, 1993)

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Examples of Using the Media to Teach About
Social and Political Issues.
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More Ideas

• Familiarize yourself with your students TV
  viewing habits and favorite music groups.
• Use segments of TV programming and other media
  reports to discuss the characterization and/or
  depiction of minorities and women in these
  programs.
• Use TV clips to dialogue about social issues, the
  motives and/or intentions of characters.

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More Ideas

• Select age-appropriate historical and current
  events to help children develop the skills needed
  to deal effectively with the complexity of good
  and evil.
• Teach about persuasion so the young become more
  critical consumers of advertisements.
• Point out differences between fantasy and
  reality, especially with the young.
• Compare and contrast the values reflected in the
  media with those we may hold as a family or as
  individuals.

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Questions and Answers